A Syrian national was robbed of L.L.700,000 by thieves claiming to be members of the army intelligence, reported the National News Agency.

It said that the assailants, riding in a black SUV, robbed Ibrahim Ahmed Mustapha, 25, while he was in his Volvo in the Mafraq Adous region.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the need to hold the parliamentary elections on time.

His visitors quoted him as saying he is “monitoring the meetings of the electoral subcommittee and hopes that the efforts would lead to an agreement on a new law that would ensure that the elections are held as scheduled.”

The electoral subcommittee suspended on Wednesday its meetings in order to allow political factions to hold consultations on a draft law that combines two election systems.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan announced: “The electoral subcommittee will resume meetings on Monday to allow for consultations on the proposal that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems.”

Desperate and unable to provide for his wife and four daughters, a Syrian refugee who swapped deadly violence in Damascus for destitution in Lebanon hanged himself on Tuesday.

"He told us he was going to buy dinner for the children. Later, we searched for him in the house, and found him hanging from a noose upstairs," said his wife Rima Bakkar, who suffered a nervous breakdown after finding her husband dead.

An escape attempt was thwarted at Aley prison on Wednesday with reports saying that the Internal Security Forces detained one of the conspiring guards.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the prison's administration swiftly took strict security measures at the facility, which led to the failure of the escape attempt.

Israel reiterated concerns that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad might transfer its chemical weapons to Hizbuulah, urging the international community to prevent such an act.

“We are facing the frightening possibility that Hizbullah could soon get its hands on Assad's vast stockpiles of chemical weapons,” Israel's envoy to the U.N. Ron Prosor said during a Security Council meeting over counter-terrorism on Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri was more optimistic on Wednesday on the ability of rival lawmakers in striking a deal, saying they had good intentions to reach common ground on an electoral draft-law.

“I felt that all sides represented in the parliamentary subcommittee have expressed readiness to reach consensus on a draft-law,” Berri told local newspapers after he received the minutes of the subcommittee that discussed the electoral draft-laws and the number of MPs in the first phase of consultations.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and General Security chief Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim held “positive” talks with senior Qatari officials over the case of abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aleppo province, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The two officials tackled with Qatari officials the efforts that their country can exert to free the nine remaining men.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Wednesday slammed politicians for widening the divide among the Lebanese, stressing that this year's parliamentary polls are the key to stability.

“The elections are the key to political stability while the electoral law is the gateway to cross the bridge to the shores of safety,” Miqati said during the launching ceremony of the second educational development project at the Grand Serail in the presence of several cabinet ministers, officials and ambassadors.

The Lebanese army intelligence detained a cadet officer in the military academy suspected of having links with a “terrorist” organization, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the daily, the network is located in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern port city of Sidon.